An old dog learning new tricks - ~danvito/Sydney

Hi guys,

My name's Dan from Sydney and I'm an 8-bit tragic. I've just recently got my Mame cabinet back up and running, neatened up and returned to the living room after quite a few years in storage while I was living overseas.

I first started the project in 2002 when I bought the original arcade cabinet from a garage sale for $40 a block from my current apartment. It's a CRT monitor to a Jamma interface, to a J-Pac, to an old Pentium computer running Windows 98 DOS mode and some stupid old version of AdvanceMame and AdvanceMenu to manage the 15Hz video. Thankfuly most of it all still worked despite being caked in dust and banged around by friends who babysat it before it was put into storage. I forget a lot of what I did at the time and how it all worked under the hood, but thankfully I did keep a record on some forums and through an early blog - which I had long forgotten and accidentally found a link to it on archive.org - and have pieced together the important bits! Anyway, all new joysticks, buttons, some new function and coin buttons, replacement perspex and a new marquee and she's back to her former glory:

My wife even thinks it looks cute but she's not a huge fan of the faux wood laminate, so has given me permission to build a new one from scratch. She doesn't realise I can't ever part with the original, so she's up for two in the living room soon ;-) I've completely lost contact with the mame/cabinet community, so I'm back here in hope of getting some pointers on where to start with the project.

I'm looking to build an upright cabinet, solid wood (pine?), LCD, with professional quality laminate artwork - most likely Street Fighter 2 styling. I'll probably go for a Simpson/TMNT-style 4-player setup (except 6-8 buttons for P1/P2).

Some questions I used to know the answer to in 2004, but have no idea now:

- what is/are the recommended emulator(s) these days?

- what's the best menu system?

- is there any reason to go for a real computer? Or is a Rasbperry Pi the go these days?

- what's the recommended OS?

- what's the standard screen size these days? Thinking 32", 4x3. Any reason to go smaller, or to go 16x9?

- where is the best place to look for plans for the cabinet? Or a good local source of pre-made cabinets?

- where is the best place to find side panel artwork?

- where is the best place to print the artwork?

- what are the recommended joysticks? (I'm used to Sanwa JLW-TM-8 Ball Top Joystick which has individual switch wiring, but seems there are newer designs with ribbon cable that look better)

Any tips greatly appreciated! :)

Cheers

Dan

Nice Cab and welcome!

Some advice - but all is personal preference.

- what's the best menu system?

For PC, Launchbox with Boxbox seems to be the most up to date and well supported. I'm just about to try it out myself.

- is there any reason to go for a real computer? Or is a Rasbperry Pi the go these days?

Either is fine. Both will require some configuration and setup.

- what's the standard screen size these days? Thinking 32", 4x3. Any reason to go smaller, or to go 16x9?

in 4:3 the largest you'll get easily is a 19". Otherwise all larger screens will be widescreen. So either black borders or mame with graphic borders. Depends on the size of cab you build. Lowboys, 19" is fine, but for larger 4 player you'll probably want a bigger widescreen.

- where is the best place to look for plans for the cabinet? Or a good local source of pre-made cabinets?

https://www.classicarcadecabinets.com/ Has all the plans for the majority of cabs.

- where is the best place to find side panel artwork?

https://www.arcadeartwork.org/ or best to make/customise your own if you have the skills.

- where is the best place to print the artwork?

Speak to user @MamePatrol here on the forum. His website: http://www.noodleshirt.com/reto-gaming

- what are the recommended joysticks? (I'm used to Sanwa JLW-TM-8 Ball Top Joystick which has individual switch wiring, but seems there are newer designs with ribbon cable that look better)

Completely personal preference.